Over recent years, no place in the United States has seen a bigger rise in the popularity of EDM than Las Vegas. The sleepless city starts its day with a hangover, cures it with slot machines, then closes the night at one of many popular night clubs. This is so frequent that these same night clubs are beginning to offer residency to DJs, many of whom will sound quite familiar.
In a recent article in The New York Times , Josh Eells investigates the profit margins of the EDM community within Las Vegas to that of its gambling scene. During his hunt to uncover the inside deals of the nightlife industry of Las Vegas, Eells had the chance to sit Black Eyed Peas front man will.i.am down to get his take on the exploding party scene. “It’s a whole new metric. What makes a hit in pop music is how many times a song gets played on the radio. A hit in DJ land is how much alcohol is bought.” This was in response to the statistic that many hotels, which often host a self contained casino as well as a bustling night club, make 80% of their revenue on alcohol alone.
Eells, later in the article, had another opportunity to spend the night with DJ Tiesto at XS night club, where chart topping DJ Afrojack currently hods residency. Eells commented on the fact that not much dancing was going on. When this was mentioned back to Will.I.Am, the singer/producer responds by saying,
“They shouldn’t even call it dance music. They should call it look-at-the-DJ-and-get-drunk music.”
All the comments made by Will.I.Am throughout his interview with Eells seem quite off putting to some. Having recently been all across the media for apparently stealing hooks, lines, melodies, and entire tracks off of popular EDM acts; it is borderline comical that the Black Eyed Peas front man would dismiss the genre so easily.
Watch the video below of will.i.am commenting on his own career as a DJ. How do you think his thoughts compare in the video to those he expressed to The New York Times